Mountain Pine Ridge

The tour on March 16 included both a visit to Caracol and a visit to Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Preserve. In the midst of a jungle there are all of these pine trees. Quite the anomaly. I'd wanted to visit to see the Hidden Valley Falls but tours to those are few and far between. But the Caves and the swimming hole (below) were very nice, especially after a hot and muggy day.

Immediately after leaving Caracol, our driver took us over to Rio Frito Caves. There was about a quarter mile hike out to the cave, singular, and then, of course, the same quarter mile hike back. The cave is the largest and most accessible (according to my guide book) of the caves in the entire country of Belize.

Inside the cave is a narrow path that takes you through the various rocks down to the bottom floor of the cave, which kind of reminded me of a beach that was indoors. The floor of the cave was sandy and had water surrounding three quarters of it. From the bottom, you could go back up the path or climb out via rocks (from which you could also climb down but that looked kind of treacherous).

The cave is actually more accurately termed a tunnel" because you can enter and exit at different ends. At the other exit from which we did enter and exit was what our guide termed a "Kodak Moment". The cave had some light but was mostly dark towards the other end. And then it just kind of opened up into this beautiful nature scene. I included the best of my pictures of that scene, above.

Rio on Pools

After visiting the cave for about 45 minutes, we drove over to the swimming hole, otherwise known as Rio on Pools, for a refreshing swim. There were a lot of people there when we arrived, not so many when we left an hour later. There were some primitive facilities for changing, very primitive. However, the water felt really good(!) after a hot day walking through ruins and the jungle.

The rocks could be quite slippery. Towards the large pool at the bottom, the rocks were arranged in such a way as to be a slide. However, depending on how you hit the rocks, you could get quite a jolt to your backside at the end of the slide. I know, because I did.

The pools weren't very deep, except for the large pool at the end. There were places you couldn't touch the bottom in that pool. However, that pool was relatively quiet compared to the pools towards the top - hardly any children or families.

Mountain Pine Ridge - March 16, 2008

Rio Frito Caves

Rio on Pools